In This Together
by Illbehisangel10
Summary: Someone's told Aria that Ezra might be -A. Now she has to go confront him. Can she take the answer? Can she give up on the man she sees as the love of her life? Post-Halloween episode. I don't own PLL.
1. Chapter 1

_**AN: I got this idea from a Wetpaint article where it really seems like Ezra is –A and Hanna has to tell Aria. I'm willing to believe he's –A but I'm not willing to give up on Ezria.**_

Aria POV:

Okay, I can do this. I can knock on his door; I've done it plenty of times before. I've practically lived here before. I can go knock on the door of apartment 3B. Hanna can't be right. She came to me earlier today and told me that she took a booklet from –A's lair. The information from that seemed to make her think that Ezra was –A.

He couldn't be. Ever since that night in the Brew, where we kissed, we'd been working through our issues. Things with Jake weren't bad, but they weren't what they are with Ezra. Also, I guess someone (not hard to figure out who) clued Jake in on the kiss. It's not like I was going to keep it a secret, but I would much rather have told Jake myself than him get a picture that he then forwarded to me saying, **"So this is what you do when I go home because I'm tired? You told me you were ready to move on. I can't do this. Bye, Aria."**

So that proves that Ezra's not –A. –A took a picture of me and Ezra kissing. He _cannot_ be –A. He loves me.

I barely even heard what Hanna had to say for evidence. She came to me before bringing Emily or Spencer into it. She wanted to give me a chance to explain away what she was saying. She doesn't want it to be Ezra either because she knows how much he means to me.

I can do this. I've been pacing out here for a few minutes. I just have to knock on his door and he'll tell me he can't believe I would even ask that and he'll kiss me and it'll all be okay.

My phone chimes and I look down at it. It's from Ezra. **"I can hear your shoes clicking outside, love. Are you ever going to come in?"** Well, I didn't think about that. I knock on his door and he opens it smiling at me.

"How did you know it was me, maybe Mrs. Rosenthal got new shoes?" I quip as I step inside.

He places a light peck on my lips and responds, "If Mrs. Rosenthal had been wearing shoes like that, she would have fallen and broken a hip. So what had you pacing outside for so long?"

"Well, we need to talk. Can we go sit down?" I'm fidgety and nervous to even ask this and I can see his face fall. He's worried about what I'm going to say. "Hey, get that look off of your face. It can't beat last weeks' talk, right?" Last week we decided we needed to come clean and discuss anything relevant to our relationship and problems we were having if we were going to make this work. That meant telling him I had kissed Wes. He took it better than I expected but he was still hurt. I mean, how could he not be, right?

"As long as you're not breaking up with me, again, I think I can handle whatever it is you want to talk about." He smiled and sat down on the couch. He held an arm out clearly offering me a spot right next to him. I sat down at the other end; I need to be able to see his eyes when I ask this. This is so stupid. I know he's not –A. Why am I nervous about this?

"I'm not, Ezra. I love you so much." I take his hand and squeeze it.

He gives it a squeeze back but he's not smiling when he asks, "I love you too, but then why are you sitting so far away from me? Aria, what is it? You know you can tell me anything."

I take a deep breath. "It's, uh, it's the worry that I don't have to tell you anything because you might already know. You might know everything." Jeez, could I be any more confusing with how I'm saying this? I'm so embarrassed at stumbling over my words that it takes me a moment to notice he's frozen and staring at me. "Ezra-"

"What do you mean, 'know everything,' Aria. What could I know?" He doesn't seem confused, though, he seems panicked. His breathing has gotten heavier and he's not looking at me. He's staring down at the space between us.

"Ezra. Look at me, Ezra." He looks up, just with his eyes; he's barely meeting my gaze. My breathing has gotten heavier now. This is a misunderstanding because I haven't made myself clear. I need to ask the question. "Ezra, are you –A?" He goes completely rigid. His gaze is frozen on mine. "Ezra, no." I get up and immediately fall to the floor.

"Aria, please. Don't run. Aria." He gets up and reaches to help me up.

"Don't touch me!" I'm trying to get my feet under me but my vision is swimming with tears. I can barely move, but I scramble on hands and knees over to his desk, trying to stand and find something to defend myself with. My eyes land on the typewriter, so many of –A's messages were written on a typewriter, how did I miss this?

"Aria, stop please. You're going to hurt yourself. Please stop trying to run away. If I was going to hurt you wouldn't I have done so by now? Just stop. Hear me out." He standing just in front of the couch and takes a step forward. I scoot back farther and hit his desk chair. He stops moving and holds up his hands. "Aria stop. I'll back up and stay over here if you'll stop trying to run and just listen." He takes a step back so that the coffee table and couch are between us.

"Talk." It's all I can choke out. I'm trying to control my breathing, but it's really more like sobbing and I can barely get him into focus because of the tears streaming down my face. My boyfriend, the man I've thought was the love of my life is –A. I suddenly realize how a revelation like this sent Spencer to Radley.

"Aria, I love you. I do. You have to believe me. Please." He's standing there with his hands still up, clearly trying not to scare me. It's not working so well.

"Why? Why should I believe a word you say?" I've worked myself into his desk chair now and I'm clinging to the arm rests like they'll be my anchor in this sea of raw emotion and betrayal. "Ezra, I gave you everything! I loved you, I helped take care of a 7 year old when I have no experience babysitting, I put up with your horrifying bitch of a mother, I faced the wrath of my parents about a student-teacher affair which led to me being the object of ridicule for weeks at school, I gave you my body! Ezra, how could you? Please, tell me it's not true. You can't be –A. You're the one who set up Hanna's mom for killing Wilden, you tried to strangle Mona. Did you kill Ali too? Or try to kill her? Did you dig up the body we thought was hers?"

"Aria, no. You don't know the whole story for any of this. That lair the four of you found in Ravenswood is mine. You found my station that I've been watching you all with, but there's still so much you don't understand. Please, let me explain it to you. I promise that what we've had is real. I've never lied about my feelings for you. Every moment we've shared has been real and precious to me. You have my heart, Aria Montgomery. After you hear me out, if you still want to leave, I won't stop you."

The emotion in his voice is so raw. I can see the hope in his eyes that I'll stay and listen. But he's –A. He's been lying to me since the moment we met. How can I trust anything I think I know about him? I got up from the chair and walked over to him. I'd stopped crying. I walked up to him with determination and brought my hand up to his face. "I'll always love you, Ezra."

With that I turned around a walked straight to the door, yanked it open, and tore off down the hall. He didn't come after me. I waited in the entryway to his apartment building. He wasn't coming running down the stairs. I checked my phone, no text from him or from –A. Maybe he meant it. He wasn't trying to stop me from going to the police or to tell my friends.

I stood in the doorway for five more minutes, then turned around and walked back up the stairs. I didn't even bother knocking at his door, I just strode in. I found him at his kitchen sink with an open bottle of whiskey and a tumbler well over three fingers full. He looked startled to see me. Hmm, I surprised –A twice in one night. Score for Aria. He was about to get the biggest shock of his life.

"Aria, what are you doing here? I thought you would have run to your friends and told them everything." He set the glass down and started to take a step toward me then, probably remembering my hesitation to have him approach me from earlier, stopped.

"You didn't come after me. You didn't try to stop me from leaving. That means you really aren't going to hurt me to keep this a secret." I walked up to him and slapped him across the face with as much strength as I could muster. "That is for keeping this from me." He stood there, stunned, with a hand to his cheek. I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to me for a deep kiss. "And that, is to let you know that I'm not going anywhere."

I pulled out one of the chairs at his kitchen table and sat down. "You said I didn't understand everything. Explain it to me. Whatever this is, I'm in. We're in this together now Ezra. No more secrets, no more sneaking around. I love you and there's no way I'm going to lose you."

"After I explain this, you're still free to leave."

"Not a chance, Ezra. I love you and you love me. We've been through so much already and we'll get through this." He sat down in the next chair over and began explaining the mystery of –A to me.

I'm in this now.

_**A/N: Well, what did you think? This reveal has been bothering me badly enough to affect my schoolwork since the episode aired. I had to fix it for the sake of my concentration. I know it might be implausible, but I want them together somehow.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: I wasn't planning to expand this. I don't know how I want that conversation between the two of them to have gone. I actually have no idea what he could have told her to excuse all that -A has done. I want them together though, so I'll just continue being super vague. People asked for another chapter. Here it is!**_

Aria POV:

**Did you talk to Ezra yet? **I rolled over and looked at the text from Hanna on my phone. I'd just spent the night with my boyfriend, love of my life, two-time high school teacher, and my tormentor for the last two years. He stirred next to me and reached his arm around my waist to pull me back to him. I let the phone fall back on the table and kissed him. That text would still be there in an hour…

It chimed again. "Aria, did you need to get that?" Ezra groggily asked me.

I stroked his check and propped myself up on my forearm. "It's Hanna. She wants to know if I talked to you yet."

He shot right up at that, suddenly wide awake. "Why? What does she know?! Aria, you can't tell your friends about this. You-"

"Shhh." I put a finger to his lips to stop the panicked babbling. "I know I can't tell them. After everything you told me last night, I wouldn't dare tell them. It puts them in more danger to know. She just suspects because of some book that was in your 'lair' and she's actually the reason I came to ask you about it. She's going to want an answer. Also, can we please find a different name for it? 'Lair' sounds so creepy."

"You can call it whatever you want. I don't want you spending time there. It can be dangerous for you too. This is a very treacherous game you've agreed to play for the sake of our relationship." He flopped back down on his pillows and pulled me down next to him. He kissed the top of my head before asking, "So what are you going to tell her? And what was in this book that pointed so strongly to me?"

"Wow, you really don't know what was taken from… that place? -A is supposed to know everything. What's going on with you?" I snuggled closer to him. This was so surreal. Here I was, comfortably cuddled next to Ezra, calmly discussing -A and my plans to lie to my best friends.

"Well, I'm sorry, but my personal life kind of spiraled out of control lately. I found out I had a son, you broke my heart, I started back at a job where I had to see you every day but couldn't really 'see' you, I found out I didn't actually have a son right as you get serious with another guy. It was kind of busy for me. That was how all of this with Hanna's mom happened. I wasn't keeping nearly as close of tabs on Cece as I needed to. She's started doing way too much on her own without consulting me. And you're avoiding the question. What are you going to tell Hanna?"

"I guess I don't know. I was a little distracted last night after you explained it to me." I was referring to the current state of undress he and I both currently had going on. I wanted to do everything I could to show him that I really do trust him and that I'm in this for the long haul, no matter what that means I have to do. It might seem crazy, but I really do love him.

"You're -A, what should I tell her? -A always has a back-up plan, right?"

"I just told you, things have gotten out of hand lately. I barely had time to make sure that the magician would choose you to go in the box to make sure you wouldn't get hurt once I found out what Cece had planned."

I sighed and got up from the bed to start getting dressed. "I'll figure something out. My lies sound better if I don't have them scripted anyway. I better get going to meet with her. If she doesn't hear from me soon, she'll probably tell Spencer and Emily about her suspicions." I picked up my phone and shot a quick text to Hanna asking her to meet me at the Brew in 15 minutes. "I'll see you after?"

"I'll make the arrangements for you to 'officially join the -A team' as you girls have been calling it while you're gone." He scratched the back of his neck nervously before continuing. I knew that whatever it was, he had to say it on his own, so I stood by the door waiting. "We can still stop this. Aria, I love you enough to lay this to rest. I- I know I've been working on it for a long time, but I won't lose you to this. Especially now that you know what's going on."

He looked at me expectantly. My heart swelled, he really loves me. "Ezra, after everything you told me about Ali last night, I want this as badly as you do. I'll do what I can to help you finish what she started all those years ago. I love you. I'll see you later."

* * *

~At the Brew~

Hanna was sitting waiting for me by the time I got there. I opened the door and she scanned my appearance, obviously realizing that I hadn't spent the night at home.

"So I take it that the talk with Fitz went well?" She sounded nervous and sarcastic at the same time. I wasn't sure that was possible.

"Hanna, it's Ezra. And yeah, it went really well. I can't believe I let you talk me into bringing that up. We're still building our trust again. That could have just as easily gone south and started a huge fight." I sat down next to her at the counter in a huff. Self-righteous indignation was a good strategy, right?

"Okay, how did that not turn into a big fight? If he isn't -A then that means you just told him that there's been a new -A and you've been lying to him since the start of senior year. And you'd just accused him of being that -A. How could he possibly have taken that for it to result in you staying the night with him?"

Today of all days, Hanna can use logic. Perfect. "Hanna, he loves me. Yeah, he was pissed that I never told him, especially since he's last to know. But I explained that it was your theory and I was just checking on it to calm you down, and he accepted that. So can we just drop it? I'd kind of like to keep him in my life."

"You asked him about the book? About all the stuff I showed you in it yesterday?"

"Yes, Hanna, okay? Yes. I asked him. We fought. We made up." I was getting into deep territory here. If she asked me what I said to him about it, I was screwed considering I didn't even listen to her when she told me about the book.

"Okay. If you say so. You know him best." She didn't seem entirely convinced. I had to keep her from bringing this up to Spencer.

"Sorry, okay? I know that was a rude. But I just don't want you running off to Spencer or Emily about this. He and I still have to keep this a secret until May. That'll be a whole lot harder if you guys are analyzing everything about my relationship through a microscope. Thanks for being concerned about me though."

That seemed to make her feel better about the whole thing. She leaned over and gave me a hug. "You know that time after you two told your parents? I stopped in his office at Hollis and told him that if two people love each other that much, they should be together. I'm happy it's not him. I'm still rooting for you two."

"Thanks, Han." I gave her the best smile I could "I've gotta get going. I'll call you later." I slid off the stool and walked out the door.

Yes, two people who love each other this much should be together no matter what. I intend to make sure that happens, even if it means lying to each one of my friends. I've done it before and I'll do it again. This way it keeps Ezra and me together and it keeps them safe. I can't tell for sure if they'd make the same decision I did if they ever found out.

I knew I made the right decision when I opened Ezra's apartment door and saw him standing there, rose in hand, with a black hoodie folded on the bed behind him.

_**A/N: Okay, really, I have no idea where to go after this. I'm sorry if anyone wants me to keep going. Unless someone wants to give me an idea of where to go after this, I'm all out. I hope you liked this chapter! Poor Hanna, but they always said Aria was the best liar.**_


End file.
